This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 91213137, filed on Aug. 23, 2002.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a card connector carrier structure and, more particularly, to a card connector carrier structure suitable for being mounted within a hand-held electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Personal digital assistant (PDA) devices become increasingly more popular. Originally, the design of PDA had the purpose of constructing an electronic device that has the functions of scheduler, event recording, electronic directory, etc. As the processing speed of computers becomes increasingly higher and the Internet and wireless communication are developed, the PDA therefore incorporates more functions of wireless communication, Internet access, games, multi-media, etc. This extension of incorporated functions gives birth to the so-called xe2x80x9chand-held computersxe2x80x9d.
The PDA is usually provided with a limited amount of memory to store data. If the user wants to increase the memory capacity, an additional small memory card usually has to be connected to the PDA. Presently, numerous types and standards of memory cards exist, among which the secure digital (SD) cards and compact-flash (CF) cards are the most commonly used. To connect the additional memory card to the PDA, a card connector meeting the standard of the memory card must be provided in the PDA. Once the memory card is connected to the card connector, the PDA can access to the data stored in the memory card.
To increase the number of types of memory card the PDA can accommodate, two different types of card connector are respectively provided at top and bottom surfaces of the circuit board of the PDA. In this case, the two card connectors are usually assembled with the circuit board in a manner to have their respective card insertion slots oriented toward a front side of the PDA to facilitate the insertion and removal of the memory cards. However, with two card connectors, the thickness of the PDA, which principally includes the respective thickness of the upper and lower covers, the thickness of the circuit board and the respective thickness of the card connectors, is inevitably increased. With the traditional assembly structure, the incorporation of additional card connectors therefore adversely results in the increase of the PDA size.
Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, a perspective view and a side cross-sectional view schematically illustrate a traditional assembly of two card connectors with the circuit board of a PDA. As illustrated, a circuit board 110 of the PDA includes a first surface 112 (i.e. top surface) and an opposite second surface 114 (i.e., bottom surface) on which a first card connector 120 and a second card connector are respectively mounted. The first card connector 120 may be, for example, an SD card connector, and the second card connector may be, for example, a CF card connector. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the traditional assembly of the first card connector 120, the circuit board 110, and the second card connector 140 increases the thickness and size of the PDA.
An aspect of the invention is therefore to provide a card connector carrier structure, suitable for being mounted within a hand-held electronic device such as PDA, that can reduce the thickness of the hand-held electronic device.
To accomplish the above and other objectives, the invention provides a card connector carrier structure that comprises a circuit board of the hand-held electronic device and a support tray mounted to the circuit board of the hand-held electronic device. A slot is formed through a thickness of the circuit board, passing through a first and an opposite second surface of the circuit board. The support tray is formed by stamping a thin metal sheet including a recessed connector-receiving region located within the slot of the circuit board and an attachment member attached to the first surface of the circuit board at a periphery of the slot. The card connector is further arranged in the connector-receiving region of the support tray within the slot to reduce the thickness of the assembly of the card connector and the circuit board, and therefore the thickness of the hand-held electronic device.
In accordance with the above and other objectives, a second card connector is further mounted to the second surface of the circuit board.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.